Over the last 5 months, I’ve decided to disconnect and recharge myself. I stopped blogging not because I didn’t want to any more but because I needed to slow down. Learning how to mix a run/life/work balance can be tough. Looking at my Garmin for my pace and splits was enough for me and keeping my journal of my fitness journey sat on the back burner as  I fit in more time to make plans with friends. And more time for short, long and speed runs.

When I got back to writing, my blog came to an end with the server I was using and I wanted to make a switch. With the switch, I lost a lot of my posts. My posts now go back from 2010 to 2012 and I’m missing 3 years on here. My perfectionist self would be best up about that but I’m learning to let go. I ran it off and realized when I was reading my old posts that I have come so far from training for my first half marathon to now. 5 years later. I cannot believe it has been that long since I started falling in love with running and documenting my journey along the way. Running has been my outlet. It’s my time to think. It’s where I get away from my day to day stresses and it’s where I push myself and learn that I am stronger than I think I am. I took a break from writing to make running feel like my escape again. I also did it to maintain my run/life/work balance.

I try to do it all. It’s my nature. Train for a half marathon, train to go to The Cheerleading Worlds, coach cheer teams and go to post-grad to start a new career all at the same time. It burns you out. I know this first hand but yet I always try to cram as much as I can. Sometimes it’s because I want to do all the things I love and sometimes it’s because I don’t want to let people down. Either way, it’s exhausting and I’ve learned to balance my life.

Running with friends is great because I get to be social and talk while I run, which helps my breathing, makes the time go by faster and pushes me to keep running even when I feel like stopping. But when I get to run solo, it feels completely different. My mind can relax, I get into my zone and feel the runner’s high. It also gives me the opportunity to shut off. It’s seems so hard to make time for myself. Deep down I feel guilty for taking time to do things just for me. And that is what I need to work on the most. That run/work/life balance seems to be overwhelming at times but it’s important to take a step back, relax and let go of the unknowns in life.